Zooooooommmmm!!!

Art by Samson Harrington

As of today there are 16 reported cases of Covid-19 on Kauai, 371 throughout the Islands.

Even amidst the grandeur of this island, there are moments when everything seems to stop, a moment  when a shadow crosses your landscape.

Maybe it's something you heard from the news, or a friend. It holds you in your tracks.

Nothing moves. You cannot turn back. The trail narrows and daylight darkens just enough to make you wonder. The only map forward is your own resolve.

Then it happens: voluntary yet magically natural.

The connection, the flint that sparks the steel, however that works inside your head, sends a message to your foot. In a micro instant, the signal zooms along synapses, a lightning bolt on nerve fiber.

There is no feeling or second guessing. The flash courses down and through your limbs, the extremities that you carry and that carry you.

Your knee flexes, your leg lifts. The journey continues. That second of indecision now an echo.

Art by Finn Harrington 

Yesterday our day brightened with a virtual happy hour with our daughters and grandchildren, connecting Los Angeles with Marin County with Kauai.

We Zoomed together. A new tech platform for socializing.  I love the word "zoom." It's so retro 1950s, when space ships and Flash Gordon roamed the universe. And Captain Zero held us captive with his TV show.

Daughter Vanessa hosted the Zoom party. She is a fifth-grade teacher and holds virtual classes with her students from her home in Woodland Hills. Her husband Mike and their two boys, Samson and Finn, appeared on the screen.

Samson showed us awesome drawings he's made. Finn, our family dancer, displayed colorful paintings including an artfully rendered tree.

Next, we saw daughter Molly in her familiar family room in San Rafael, with her husband Jason and their girls, Summer and Piper. Summer talked about the possibility of going to Oregon for college next year. Jason and Piper were asked to vacate a basketball court although they were the only ones there. Boo. No more hoops. Molly showed us color samples painted on the wall for new interior design.

It took a little longer but soon we heard granddaughter Viva's lively voice from Anahola on Kauai, not far away by miles, yet socially separated because of the Big-V. Mama Isabel and little-guy Mystiko could be heard, too. Sadly, we could not see them due to tech limitations.

For those moments, we were all together. We chatted and shared stuff and laughed for about an hour.

I already look forward to meeting again next week. Yet there's more time to act between now and then. The act of life. The drama that we consume and that absorbs us. That's what it comes down to: the present. Our daily breath. Our every move and wonder. Onward into the light.

As Captain Zero used to say: Zoooooooooommmmm!